The Tasman Environment Trust is helping mobilise the community to donate and volunteer towards significantly reducing invasive wasp populations in Nelson and Tasman at the region’s favourite recreational and tourism spots.

The Common and German Wasp Wasps are New Zealand’s ultimate villain towards humans and nature alike. The species we’re focussing on (German and common) were introduced. They wreak havoc on our environment, killing native birds, young bats, insects, lizards and honey bees. Wasps also feed off honeydew, a valuable food source for native fauna and honey bees. They cost the NZ economy more than $130 million a year.

They also attack, injure, and have been known to kill humans. The biomass (total weight of wasps in Nelson and Tasman) exceeds all other pests in New Zealand, including possums, stoats and rats. There are a million hectares of beech forest in the South Island and over 5, and up to 40, wasp nests per hectare.